Modernism generally relates to social and cultural movements associated with the later 19th and early 20th centuries. It embraces the far-reaching changes that occurred as a result of urbanization, industrialization, and World War One. Modernism snaps the unifying thread of cultural continuity that existed from the renaissance through the Enlightenment, one that stressed progress, certainty, and the inherent goodness of man (think Pico della Mirandola’s Oration of the Dignity of Man). from about 1870, Europe’s intellectuals and artists increasingly questioned the accepted belief that Western civilization was progressive, and that progress was always good. Composers (Richard Wagner), writers (Henrik Ibsen), and philosophers (Friedrich Nietzsche) became prominent critics of contemporary civilization. By the start of the 20th century, this artistic attitude became known for the first time as ‘avant-garde.’

While modernism existed on the eve of the First World War,the war itself accelerated the process of change, fundamentally and permanently reshaping the attitudes of those who experienced it.

Time Line

• 1918 Women given the vote in UK
• 1922 The Irish Free State established (by Anglo-Irish Treaty) after two years of fighting the IRA in the Irish War of Independence; Northern Ireland (Protestant Ascendancy) is retained as part of Great Britain.
• 1922 France occupies the Ruhr (the heart of Germany’s coal and steel industries) when Germany defaults on war reparation payments
• 1924 Ramsay MacDonald heads Britain’s first Labor Govt (also 1929-35)
• May 1926 General strike in UK; for 9 days Britain closed down
• 6 Feb 1934 Right-wing groups riot in Paris following the Stavisky Scandal
• 1936 Edward VIII (UK) abdicates to marry American divorcee; his younger brother becomes King George V (r.1936-52)
• 1937 Neville Chamberlain heads Britain’s Conservative Govt (will meet with Hitler at Munich Conference in 1938: “I believe it is peace for our time.”)

Politics – Britain and France

In the war Britain had suffered nearly 1million killed, France 1.4 million. In 1918, Britain extended the vote to all men over the age of 21 AND to women over the age of 30. The national debts of both Britain and France had increased about 1000% and finances were severely strained.Following the war, both Great Britain and France experienced serious economic problems, yet both managed to maintain their democracies. Attempting to cope with the recession, the Lloyd George govt (UK)increased unemployment payments (the dole) and imposed a tariff on imports with the Safeguarding of Industries Act (a departure from the tradition of laissez-faire economics), with little impact on the recession. Unemployment remained high and Britain’s decision to return to the gold standard in May 1925 further constricted the economy.

Neither Britain nor France was able to pursue policies that led to substantive economy recovery of decrease unemployment (like in the USA, only WWII would accomplish that). The Labor Party emerged in Britain as one of the two major parties (at the expense of the Liberal Party). Both France and Britain were deeply divided between leftists and conservatives on the eve of WWII.

ART

Cubism, German Expressionism, Bauhaus

[a good site to see German Expressionist work.]